Top TV Pairings Part 3

And here is the third installment of the TV Pairing Posts. Hope everyone is enjoying it so far ....

Friends - Monica Gellar/Chandler Bing

Forget Ross/Rachel and their inane 'will they won't they' antics. It was Monica and Chandler who were the funniest, interesting and touching couple on this show and when the quality in later seasons was all over the place, Monica and Chandler were a consistent source of joy.

Pushing Daisies - Ned/Charlotte 'Chuck' Charles

This show was the epitome of sickly sweet fairytale and the relationship between life bringing pie maker Ned and the not-so-dead Chuck was definitely a recipe for success for the shortlived TV series.

Lip Service - Cat MacKenzie/Sam Murray

Now I like Frankie as much as the next person but when it comes to who I think Cat should be with, I have to admit I tend to lean towards Sam. The chemistry between the actresses is better and the relationship itself is healthy as well. Sorry, Frankie fans.

Ugly Betty - Betty Suaraz/Daniel Meade

I never shipped these two in the first year of the show but over the course of the show, I liked how they grew as characters and the interaction with each other. It's just too bad that the series finale ended on such an ambiguous note for Betty and Daniel.

Queer As Folk UK - Vince Tyler/Cameron Roberts

Sorry for the terrible picture but trying to find one of the two together seems nigh on impossible. Vince found a nice guy and lost him because of Stuart. Sometimes I wonder what goes through RTD's head when logic isn't there.

It's The Afterbirth You Dickhead

Okay, this is probably the last TV jumble blog for 2010 and here are the end of a few shows I've been watching over the last few weeks.

Ugly Betty - Yes, Season 4 has finally finished up on E4 and while it continues to show us that Vanessa Williams was better here than in her new gig, I have to admit the last few episodes have been fun - Betty getting rid of her braces, Hilda getting married, Justin finally coming out, Wilhemina and Cliare burying the hatchet, Amanda finding her real father and of course, Betty leaving for London and Daniel going after her. The series wasn't perfect but it was a fun, feel-good antidote that will be missed.

Misfits - I loved the last two episodes of this show. The finale might have pulled something of a reset after the consequences of milk guy nearly killing everyone but it certainly made for a fun episode and it's incredible that even with a rubbish power, Brian could manage to be a fairly credible threat as well. As for the Christmas special, well, it certainly won't go down as too schmaltzy anyways. You had Marnie giving birth with Nathan stamping on the afterbirth for gore along with Nikki's swift death, a guy pretending to be Jesus, Simon and Alisha's reltionship developing and the gang losing their powers only to gain some new ones. Thank goodness this show is due for a third run.

The Vampire Diaries - Three episodes in a row and I've finally finished off the first season and it was fun. I liked learning more about Stefan and Damon first few hours as vampires, Isobel's brief entry into Alaric and Elena's lives was amusing enough and the writers have made sure I don't feel an ounce of compassion for John Gilbert. Heck, even when Katherine in the final minute chopped his bloody fingers off, I couldn't muster any empathy for the guy. Damon had some nice moments of decency, Jeremy lost another girlfriend with Anna and Tyler was also effected by the noise of that device, which can only mean there's something supernatural about him. Here's hoping TG4 don't waste too much time and air Season Two pretty sharpish.

Desperate Housewives - I was waiting for one episode this season to truly blow me away and I actually got it. Okay, so event episodes are all spectacle and I'm still not sure how Paul's storyline can be sustained for the rest of the season but at least someone had the freaking sense to shoot him. I'm betting it'll be someone like Mitzi or even Lee if they want to be a tad risky. As for the riot, it felt devastating enough and here's hoping that the remainder of the season will finally get the show back on track too.

The Apprentice - Irish/UK Versions - Ah, it's an all girl victory on both sides. Michelle predictably bagged it for the Irish and Stella (less predictably for me) won the UK one but either way, both versions had some enjoyable moments and sure, it won't be too long before the seventh series of Alan Sugar's version hits our screens again.

- Along with Caprica, SyFy have also pulled the plug on Stargate Universe. Wow, it's really not good to be a spin-off nowadays.

- The producers of Smallville have been trying to get Michael Rosembaum to reprise his role as Lex Luthor for the show's final run.

- Ian Somerhalder has revealed that Klaus in The Vampire Diaries will make Damon shake in his boots. Sounds like my kinda character, then.

- Damien Lewis, David Harewood, Mandy Patinkin, Claire Danes and Laura Fraser have all joined the cast for new Showtime series, Homeland.

- John Corbett has landed a multi-arc role on Parenthood.

Oh For The Love Of Cheesus

Religion is a tricky topic on television and Glee certainly wasted zero time in getting their views across in last week's episode. I was happy that Burt Hummell was going to have more to do in the series but I wasn't expecting him to have heart problems and be the centre of a religious discussion. Here's my stance - I'm with the Kurt and Sue Sylvester's on the notion of religion and I found that people like Mercedes and Rachel, in spite of meaning well did force their opinions on Kurt too freely. Rachel herself also crossed a social line by singing Papa Can You Hear Me to a comatose Burt as well. In terms of the other song choices in this one - props for Kurt's rendition on I Wanna Hold Your Hand and the group's version of One Of Us but Finn's version of Losing My Religion left me cold as did his inane plot with a grilled cheesus sandwich. Some fans might not like the more topical of episodes on this show and while the religious arguments were pretty heavy handed, this was easily the strongest episode of the new season so far.

I like Modern Family and I pretty much dipped in and out of the first series, mostly enjoying it. Thursday saw the return of the series with the first two episodes airing back to back but it was the second episode that was the main highlight. It was the episode that the writers decided to tackle Mitchell's awkwardness with public displays of affection and finally give viewers an on-screen kiss with him and Cameron. Which the episode handled well but it wasn't the highlight of the first two episodes. I think the craziness with Claire's two daughters along with Gloria's insistence on her dead mother being in the room with them was somewhat more interesting. Overall, this remains a fun, feel-good series that for the most part doesn't try too hard to be too funny but still manages to get the right amount of laughs nonetheless.

There should be more episodes where Chloe and Tess have to spend time with each in Smallville. Tess might not be someone you'd trust with your life but her skills of deduction are certainly something that you'd wish would occassionally pass through both Clark and Oliver from time to time. We might not have needed Tess to point out how much Oliver is into Chloe but it certainly didn't harm the episode and their moments together were better than anything concerning Checkmate (Waller needs to get better) or Oliver's ham fisted attempts to take out Zod all by himself. Next time, Oliver, try to pay attention to the few times in which Clark is actually right about something. It helps, y'know.

That halfway point of The Vampire Diaries and whilst ITV2 viewers are enjoying the second season, I'm still with the first one. So, the last episode that I watched had Alaric staking Logan and Elena doing what every sensible girl would do when finding out that she resembled her beau's last girlfriend - fleeing. Every week, I keep getting surprised with this series and with Elena in dire straits at the end of the episode, I'm certainly looking to seeing her getting out of that one as well as learning more about the Glibert family tree.

Ugly Betty has been rather there for the last couple of weeks but because I've seen the episodes earlier in the year, I haven't been as anxious to rewatch them (that doesn't mean the series is bad, it's really not) but the Bahamas episode was a lot of fun. The Shakira appearance worked well in the show's favour and the varying hook-ups reminded me that this must've been a sweeps episode when it aired in the UK. Plus, it also brought the Wilhemina/Connor relationship to an end for now. Don't worry, folks, Grant Bowler will still appear later on in the series.

What is it with the CW and remakes nowadays? First there were 90210 and Melrose Place (which deservedly bombed) and now, Nikita? I've watched episodes of the original series and it was a wonderful precursor to Alias but this version, judging on the first episode alone is like the bastard child of Dollhouse and Battlestar Galactica. To say I was bored shitless would almost be a kind thing to say but Christ, this was certainly a wasted hour of my life. Maybe later episodes will be something interesting but overall, this was an incredibly dire start to a series that probably did not need resurrecting in the first place.

- Expect an infidelity plot with Kevin and Scotty in Brothers And Sisters as well as one of them briefly going missing. Sally Field is also an executive producer of the series now.

- Desperate Housewives Season 7 will air on Channel 4, Sundays at 10pm from October 17th.
- Modern Family actors, Jesse Tyler-Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet have appeared in a PSA in regards to teens being bullied. Mary Lynn Rajskub will also appear in an episode as a former girlfriend of Mitchell's.

- Glee will be tackling the nature of suicide in an upcoming episode as well as bullying. It's rumoured both stories will involve Kurt. Another episode will show us younger versions of Brittany and Santana.

- Christine Willes will be joining Smallville in the role of Granny Goodness. The character was briefly seen in the previous season but will have a bigger role this time around.

- Channel 4 have secured the rights to the new Camelot series for transmission in 2011. They'll also be airing The Event from October 22nd.

Standing Up For Nerds Everywhere

Five episodes into The Vampire Diaries and I'm having a lot of people telling me how great this show gets in later episodes and it's enough to make me want to speed up but I can't. However, I can see why friends of mine are loving this show. My niece last night described the cast as incredibly attractive (she might have made a supernatural allusion somewhere) and they are an incredibly good looking bunch. Plus the extraordinary thing isn't just the rivalry between Stefan and Damon, or the fact the latter managed to escape from his prison and this time more likely killed Vicki as a result. Heck, even Bonnie honing in on her powers wasn't the highlight this week but Elena finally realising that her new boyfriend isn't all he seems definitely was. So, here's to Stefan filling her in on the fact that he's a vampire in the next episode then.

As for Smallville, another middle of the road episode this week. I have looked into later episodes where things such as Checkmate and Zod's overall machinations actually go up a notch, so sitting through an episode where some guy tries to murder off Kandorians because they used extreme methods to save his life wasn't all that interesting. Slightly better was Chloe and Oliver banding together to prevent Tess from finding Chloe's stash of weapons for when the apocalyse arrives. An apocalypse I'd welcome now to be honest. As for Clark saving Zod's life - like hell that won't come back to bite him soon enough.

A show by MTV worries me. There's the US version of Skins next year, which may or may not be a steaming pile of turd and then there's the godawful Jersey Shore, currently clogging up the TV schedules. After all the excess promotion behind The Hard Times Of RJ Berger - a series where nerdy kid RJ's massive meat and two veg becomes public knowledge in high school after a disastrous basketball game, I really thought that MTV were getting desperate but watching the first two episodes of the series, I have to admit that it's actually an enjoyable show. Nowhere near as crass as the premise suggested and while all the characters fall into obvious stereotypes, I think this could become a guilty pleasure for me. Definitely something I want to see more and I certainly didn't mind RJ's attempts of standing up for nerds everywhere in the second episode even if he did lose the election to jock Max.

Ugly Betty's fourth season in my opinion comes close to being the best for the show since it's first year but it takes later episodes for that to really be driven home. Last Wednesday's episode wasn't the best, even with the amusement of seeing Betty and Marc dressed as a hotdog and Daniel thinking on his feet to stop a sexual harrassment lawsuit. The Justin plot in particular is definitely something to keep an eye out on.

I caught up with the last two episodes of The X Factor and yeah, while there's a few standouts (Mary Byrne, Cher?), I have to say that both Katy Perry (Dublin) and Natalie Imbruglia (Birmingham) were much better at engaging with the contestants than Geri Halliwell had been during the Glasgow auditions. However this year, the most memorable thing was horrid duo AbLisa, who added assault, abusing the audience and dissing the guest judge to their list of shortcomings. It's enough to make you forget about the auto-tuning incident, isn't it?

It's only three days away from the Big Brother franchise finally ending and Ultimate Big Brother has been busy enough. To be honest, I've sort of tired of the Victor/Nick double act and hope the latter's exited on Wednesday but it was rather sad to see Nadia make herself so unpopular in the last few days before her eviction. Davina's interview with her left a bad taste in my mouth and while Nadia did act like a bitch to the likes of Ulrika for little reason, I do think as a professional journalist/broadcaster, Davina should've acted maturely instead of the rent a mob that has ruined this show in recent years. As for the arrival of Vanessa Feltz - works for me. Anyone who can handle Nikki's tantrums with the patience she has clearly deserves to win but it's clear that Brian or Chantelle will emerge victorious on Friday though. Oh and the appearances of Glyn, Samanda, Rex, John Tickle and Anthony over the last few days for tasks has been fun. I knew the latter didn't have sex with Makosi.

- New girl Sunshine will perform Lady Gaga's Telephone with Rachel in a bathroom stand-off in the first episode of Glee's second season. Empire State Of Mind will also feature in the first episode.

- Desperate Housewives opening episode will reveal the baby swap plot in full in the first ten minutes.

- Both Shawn and Aaron Ashmore have been cast as twins in the new season of Fringe.

- Ali Larter has claimed that it's unlikely that a Heroes film will enter production.

- Ken Jenkins will play the father of Courtney Cox's character Jules in the second season of Cougar Town.

- Nicholas Brendon is the latest actor to sign on for Private Practice. Previous Buffyverse actors have been Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Amber Benson and Emma Caulfield.

- Jane Espenson will be writing three of the 10 episodes scheduled for the fourth season of Torchwood.

- David Marshall Grant has confirmed that all the characters in Brothers And Sisters will be in different places in their lives this season.

Death Does Not Become Him

I know I'm late and I apologise but here's my highlights. More to come on Sunday.

Blimey, it's been a mixed few days in the Big Brother house. The house being flooded could be intepreted as a sign that maybe this show should end all the more or it could've been bad workmanship as well, which is the likelier option. Other highlights in the last few day? I'm not gonna say Jo's eviction but I will say that there's a certain glee in seeing virtually everyone in the last few days take John James to task over his treatment of everyone (particularly Corin) and the set of pointless tasks in yesterday's highlights with Sam as a butler and John James becoming crab eyes. I'm also liking that Mario and Corin seem to be getting some actual airtime as well as Josie being a lot more likeable than she has been for weeks. I won't be sad to see this series end but I do hope that John James and Dave are amongst the four gone by tomorrow night.

Now, that was a finale. Misfits has been brilliant to catch up on over the last six weeks and while it's a shame that Sally met her end and everyone else is seemingly none the wiser (except maybe Kelly), the episode had a lot of fun with a purity girl wanting to talk the hedonism out of everyone and pretty much did with Kelly, Alisha and Curtis. I liked that Nathan was the one who resisted it, even if it meant that he had to die, only to wake up in his own coffin. Images like that never stop being scary and I certainly didn't envy Robert Sheehan having to film that. The first season has been a lot of fun and I'm certainly going to be tuning into a second season when E4 airs it later on. Oh and Simon keeping Sally's dead body as a playmate really does prove how creepy that kid is.

The Good Wife has been something that I've been watching on and off for most of the year and has been pretty good. Hardly a series that can be accused of reinventing the wheel but the characters have been well formed, likeable and the plots mostly interesting. Plus the guest stars over the last few weeks, notably Carrie Preston and Alan Cumming have been enjoyable enough, especially as the latter's Gold character served as a reasonable thorn in Alicia's side. The finale seemed to further the Alicia and Will arc that's been dominent with the second of the season, furthered Kalinda's sexuality and also had Amy Acker playing the wife of a man killed because he was about to expose corrupt cops. I'll definitely keep with the series.

Out of the shows I'm highlighting in this blog, why does Mistresses have to be so gloomy? I get that it's probably wise to show the consequences of adultery but even in the first two series we got to see some of the characters have actual fun. With this final series, that's not been happening. Katie can't seem to tolerate her mother, showed anger when she learned her father was a cheat and even snogged Richard. How does Richard pull both Katie and Trudi when he's so bloody boring? Watching him whine and moan about Trudi not wanting to sell her business was a source of tedium and a part of me cheered that she actually got closer to her new business partner as well. As for Siobhan and Jessica, between engaged exes and unwilling to work to get out of debt hubbies, neither of them are having much fun either.

Good news people - Ugly Betty's fourth and final season is finally airing but the stinker is that it's been relegated to E4 and T4 screenings only. It's a shame because I've already seen most of the last year months ago and it's actually very good in places - Season 1 good even. The first two episodes aren't the series best but they did have some high points. Betty trying to settle into her new position was one of them, Daniel trying to get a new assistant was another and of course, the hints that the writers are also going to finally address Justin's sexuality as well. The next 18 episodes are going to be interesting.

- Andrea Bowen will be appearing in Desperate Housewives in the future as well as Joy Lauren, reprising her role as Danielle Katz.

- Anna Gunn has signed up for a guest role in the new season of Lie To Me.

- Anna Paquin, Alexander Skarsgard and Stephen Moyer have posed naked/covered in bood for an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Alan Ball has also mentioned that Hallow (a necromancer/were/medium/witch) will be the main villain for Season 4 of True Blood. The role has yet to be cast.

- An episode of Smallville will force Lois and Clark together in the future.

- Nurse Jackie actor Guillermo Diaz has been cast in an upcoming episode of new ABC series, No Ordinary Family. He'll guest star as Detective Cordero.